(RepublicanJournal.org) – Actor Bill Cobbs has been found dead at his home. The 90-year-old was best known for his roles in movies like “The Bodyguard” and “New Jack City,” but also appeared in many popular TV shows. So far his cause of death is unknown, but relatives say his end was peaceful.
Wilbert Francisco Cobbs was born in Cleveland, Ohio on June 16, 2024. His family were working-class, but his second cousin, actor James Basket, would later play Uncle Remus in Disney’s “Song of the South.” Cobbs didn’t rush into acting himself, though. Enlisting in the US Air Force as a radar technician, he served the country for eight years before leaving to work in IBM’s office products division. Then, while working as a car salesman in Cleveland, he joined the city’s African American Performing Arts Center and Karamu House theater. At that point he decided acting might be for him after all, and in 1970 he moved to New York City. While he looked for auditions he worked as a cab driver, office equipment repairer and toy salesman, along with whatever other odd jobs he could find, but it wasn’t long before his efforts started to pay off.
Cobbs soon started finding small roles, and his first movie appearance was in the 1974 crime drama “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three.” He went on to take part in dozens of movies, including “The Hitter,” “The Color of Money” and “Demolition Man.” His biggest role was as Whitney Houston’s manager in 1992’s “The Bodyguard.” Cobbs was also a regular on TV shows from the mid-1970s through to his final appearance in “Incandescent Love” in 2023.
On June 25 Cobbs’s brother, Pastor Thomas G Cobbs, announced that the actor had “passed away peacefully at his home in California.” Pastor Cobbs said his brother had recently celebrated his birthday with his relatives, and the family took comfort from knowing he was now at rest.
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